PREDICTION: In next election cycle, TV will go from important to impotent.

Several election cycles back – OK maybe more than just several – we began advising clients to throw everything they had into TV, mail and phones and build their campaigns out from that foundation. More often than not, the campaigns who stayed disciplined within that mantra succeeded.

But in the coming campaign cycle, the old “TV, mail and phones ploy” just won’t work … on any level. That’s because all three traditional building blocks of a successful political media campaign are on the fast track to irrelevance. And you’re hearing this from a guy who’s made his living producing political media campaigns for decades.

In the year 2010, will candidates and campaigns really keep flushing the lion’s share of their precious (and ever-diminishing) budget down the tube? Will they continue relying on media channels that grow less efficient every day?

The smart ones won’t.

Last weekend I visited with a family member who retired a couple years ago after 40+ years as a media planner, buyer, stragegist, mover and shaker for a couple of the biggest mega-ad agencies in America. He was one of a small handful of ad execs who actually shaped broadcast media over the past quarter century, moving billions of advertising dollars through the world’s media.

Another very interesting blog entry: “Theorizing the Cultural Quality of New Media”

I ran across this essay today and found it extremely relevant, especially considering that much of the research predates Twitter.   Bravo!

http://endlesscities.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/theorizing-the-cultural-quality-of-new-media/

Social Media: An Essential Marketing Element

An interesting article.  Again, if you’ve been thinking about this, then you’ve been  thinking about this!

http://mattdxy.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/social-media-an-essential-marketing-element/

Sine (and let) Die!

On the surface, getting a social political media network started seems simple  …  a few clicks on a few wizards, add a keyword or two and you’re done!  Free accounts on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.  Campaign and Legislative session photos on Flickr. Maybe a blog or a video blog.

Seems pretty simple. Not even that much extra work.  There’s an intern who can handle that, right?

Well, having been in the middle of some of that “not that much extra work” during the recently concluded 2009 session of the Texas Legislature, I was excited to see a couple of Texas’ best and brightest who got it, and kept us informed throughout the day on business before the House and Senate.  I  saw a few members and associations take advantage of the power of video in their blogs, tweets and websites.  A handful of associations – including a couple for whom I proudly toil – kept their members so well-informed that the news from the legislature dominated conversations in the grocery store, mall and doctor’s office.  Unfortunately, your Old Dutch Uncle spent plenty of time in all of them this spring.  Believe me, there’s nothing like talking health care reform with the guy standing behind you who’s got the latex glove on his hand!

5 Stupid Arguments Against Starting a Social Media Program « Legends of Aerocles

5 Stupid Arguments Against Starting a Social Media Program

An enlightening article… but if you’ve thought about this before, then it all makes perfect sense.

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Social Media DOESN’T make sense for politicians!

Many years ago, a mentor who’s long since shuffled off this mortal coil, used to tell our ad agency clients (and anybody else within earshot): “Just because you produce an ad doesn’t mean you’re advertising.”

He’d then go on the say that the velox (remember those?) of the newspaper ad hanging on the boss’s bulletin board was great as a common reminder that the client had made an ad.  Client could look at it 9-5 every day, chuckle over its creativity, touch it, hug it, call up his friends and talk about it.

Then at the end of the month, he’d wonder why that velox didn’t improve his sales.

Same could be said for the award-winning direct mailer that generated less than a half percent response. Or the hard-hitting political TV response ad that aired at 3am on the Cartoon Network.  Or the Telly or Polly Awards won for a losing campaign. Those of us who have been in and around the political communications world for awhile can cite dozens of personal experiences where lessons like these were learned at unacceptably high prices.

In 2008, it was how Barack Obama won that ensured he did.

Happy Mother’s ….. Day!

Doesn’t it always seem that one head scratcher begets another and another and so on and so on, ad Breck Shampooeum? (Come on! You old timers will remember that wonderful split screen spot from the 60s…)

Mother’s Day 2009 was one of those days.

I awoke to a painfully strident interview on CBS with (THANKFULLY) former VP Dick Cheney defending torture and bashing the current administration for making Americans more vulnerable to terror. Cheney spoke as if he honestly believed the Bush administration was within its rights to invade, usurp, torture and terrorize not only the people of the Middle East but also those of our entire planet. One look at his face and his tone, however, reminded us that this is a man who is incapable of sincerity… probably pathologically.

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH THE INTERVIEW

Former President Bush (the lesser) has been well advised to keep his mouth shut since leaving the White House.  Cheney, however, seemed rather irrigated that he was no longer pulling the world’s strings.  When the word “Limbaugh” came out of his mouth, it was time to shut it down.

In the Texas Capitol; New Media, but SOS!

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the base demographic of so-called social media has moved from the young to the middle aged and up.  For example, one study revealed that Facebook, with 200 million users worldwide, has seen membership in the 35-54 age demographic nearly triple in the past six months.  (Read the report)

Although your Dutch Uncle no longer is a member of that demographic group (Those of us within spittin’ distance of our 40-year High School reunions are the second-fastest growing group on Facebook, showing nearly 200% growth in users in the past six months), I had no clue that Facebook was, is and apparently has ever been the home for us Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. Always viewed it as a thing that the kids did, where they could chat, exchange pictures of themselves smoking and drinking  – underage of course – and hurl epithets at each other as younglings are want to do.

It was only at the urging and invitation of one of my dear friends and clients in the Texas Legislature that I drank the Kool-Aid, so to speak, and expanded my Facebook presence.